Task Force Report Emphasizes Need for Urgent Action on North American Security and Prosperity

May 17, 2005

The final report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America adds momentum to the trinational security and prosperity initiative launched recently by the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada, says the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE).

Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and composed of 26 leading figures from government, academia, business and the non-profit sector, the Task Force strongly endorses the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) announced at the March 23 summit in Texas, and proposes building on and extending that initiative by creating a new community by 2010 with a single market, common external tariff, and an outer security perimeter.

The Task Force issued its final report today during a meeting in New York City attended by the three co-chairs: William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts and Assistant United States Attorney General; Pedro Aspe, former Finance Minister of Mexico; and John Manley, former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

“The very fact that 26 eminent men and women representing widely different interests and backgrounds have agreed on these recommendations sends a powerful and unmistakable signal to elected representatives in all three countries,” said CCCE Chief Executive and President Thomas d’Aquino, the Canadian vice-chair of the Task Force.

In January 2003, the CCCE embarked on a multi-year project to develop a strategy for shaping Canada’s future within North America and beyond. In launching its North American Security and Prosperity Initiative(NASPI), the CCCE said that a Canadian strategy for managing its future within the continent should be based on five pillars: reinventing borders; regulatory efficiency; resource security; the North American defence alliance; and new institutions. All five areas are addressed in the final report of the CFR-sponsored Task Force.

“The vision of a stronger, more secure and more prosperous North America is one that my Council has long championed,” Mr. d’Aquino said. “The Task Force has set ambitious but achievable goals that, if met, will significantly enhance North American competitiveness and directly improve the lives of the citizens of Canada, the United States and Mexico.”

In addition to supporting the Task Force, the CCCE is working closely with its counterparts in the United States and Mexico, the Business Roundtable and the Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios. Last month, the three CEO-based organizations agreed to coordinate their efforts in order to encourage their respective governments to move ahead as quickly as possible in implementing the agenda laid out at the March 23 summit. The three organizations will bring together select CEO members for a meeting in Washington, D.C., in September to explore further ways of expanding business-to-business cooperation within North America.

The Task Force report points out that North Americans face three common challenges: shared security threats arising from terrorist and criminal activity; shared challenges to economic growth and development in increasingly competitive and globalized markets; and the challenge of uneven economic development, particularly with respect to southern and central Mexico.

To ensure a secure, just, and prosperous North America, the Task Force puts forward 39 specific recommendations. They include measures to:

• Make North America safer
  -Establish a common security perimeter by 2010
  -Develop a North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers
  -Develop a unified border action plan and expand border facilities
• Create a single economic space
  -Adopt a common external tariff
  -Allow for the seamless movement of goods within North America
  -Move to full labour mobility between Canada and the United States
  -Develop a North American energy strategy
  -Develop and implement a North American regulatory plan that includes “open skies and open roads”
• Spread the benefits of economic development more evenly
  -Establish a North American Investment Fund to encourage private capital flows that would strengthen Mexico’s infrastructure and accelerate economic growth in Mexico’s poorer regions
  -Restructure and reform Mexico’s public finances
  -Speed up development of Mexican energy resources by making greater use of international technology and capital
• Institutionalize the North American partnership
  -Convene an annual North American summit meeting
  -Create a North American Advisory Council
  -Establish a permanent tribunal for trade and investment disputes
  -Establish a trinational competition commission
  -Expand scholarships to study in the three countries

Founded in 1976, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives is Canada’s premier business association, with an outstanding record of achievement in matching entrepreneurial initiative with sound public policy choices. A not-for-profit, non-partisan organization composed of the chief executives of 150 leading Canadian enterprises, the CCCE was the Canadian private sector leader in the development and promotion of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement during the 1980s and of the subsequent trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement.

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino, the members of the CCCE’s Executive Committee are: Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; Honorary Chairman A. Charles Baillie; and Vice-Chairmen Dominic D’Alessandro, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Jacques Lamarre, Gwyn Morgan and Gordon Nixon, the chief executives respectively of Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, SNC-LAVALIN Group Inc., EnCana Corporation and Royal Bank of Canada.